My goodness does time moves fast! I cannot believe we are at the end of summer and fall is just around the corner. Perhaps, for some, fall is not as near as I perceive it. However, we are coming down to one month to go before the season's change again.

With summer winding down, I must share a summer recipe for my favorite beverage...lemonade! If you do not know already, I love good food. And, one of my favorite hobbies is gourmet cooking and baking at home, especially for my husband, close family, and friends. Over the course of time, you'll see more of my favorite recipes appearing on the From the Heart blog. This is my personal treat to you so that you can do more entertaining with those that you love at home; creating lasting memories that you, your family, and friends can talk about for years to come. Are you excited? I sure hope so!

This Strawberry lemonade recipe will tantalize your taste's buds with sweet, salty and a little bit of heat. For those who are a little uneasy about spicy recipes, I am someone who does not tolerate really spicy foods well. Therefore, it's not overpowering.

Spicy Strawberry Lemonade(Makes one quart of goodness)

Ingredients:1 pint (2 cups) strawberries, rinsed and stems cut1/2 to 3/4 cups of granulated sugar, depending on sweetness of fruit1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (fresh is best and watch out for the seeds!)2 cups of cold water1 teaspoon of lemon zest2 tablespoons of raw sugar1/2 teaspoon of flaky salt (fleur de sel) or coarse salt1/8 teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper1/2 cup of water in a small bowl

Instructions:Using a blender, puree strawberries, sugar, and lemon zest until smooth. Place sieve on top of a medium sized bowl. Pour pureed strawberry mixture into the sieve and pass through into the bowl.

In a pitcher large enough to accommodate one quart of liquid, add puree mixture, cold water, and lemon juice. Mix well. Placed in the refrigerator and allow to chill before serving.

Just before serving: On a small plate, mix together fleur de sel salt, raw sugar, and cayenne pepper. Taste. If you prefer a little or less heat, adjust cayenne pepper to your liking. Take your drinking glasses and dip the tops of the glasses into the water filled bowl. Just enough to create a wet rim around the top. Then dip the tops of the glasses into the salt/sugar/spice mix until the rim is nicely coated with the mix. Add ice into the drinking glasses and pour in your strawberry lemonade mix. Note: You can also try this recipe with other berries such as raspberries and blueberries.

Enjoy your refreshing & spicy drink with your family and/or friends. Cheers to the last days of summer!

Here at Indigo Ember, we love paper! However, we’ve decided to return to the root of it all…wood. There is something special about etching a design onto a real wooden surface. From the sight of seeing a beautiful design engraved onto a timeless surface to the smell of the burnt wood is unforgettable.

The woods used to create our wooden greeting cards are carefully examined by grain pattern, color, and texture. Indigo Ember wants to ensure our customers are getting the best quality wood for their purchase. Once the wood passes our quality test, it’s then ready for engraving. For woods that did not pass our laser sharp tests, we repurpose them for other uses such as creating promotional products. The high-quality woods are then laser engraved and/or laser-cut with our designs onto their beautiful surfaces on the front. If elected, on the backs of the wood cards, we laser engrave our customers’ heartfelt personalized messages.

Our 4 x 6 wood cards became popular and are well received by our customers. We are tickled and delighted when we learn how much an impact our cards have made or are making when given as gifts to those you love! Thank you for sharing your stories.

In early 2016, we have announced our mini wood cards as an introductory line to Indigo Ember’s greeting card repertoire. These wood cards offer the same beauty and quality like its 4" x 6" wood cousin except in a smaller size (3.75” x 4.75”). Just like their cousin, these cards became just as popular.

We did not stop with our mini wood cards! This summer (2017), we introduced a new upgrade to our popular wood cards, the 5” x 7” wood cards. Our 5 x 7 wood cards are our luxury cards. These cards are designed for those very special celebratory moments in your life or for those who prefer a large card to express their love.

So, there you have it! Our tale is Indigo Ember offers three wood card sizes to help express your love to that special person in your life: Our mainstay 4 x 6 wood cards, mini and large wood cards. Which card is right for you depends on your personal preference and budget. If you are new to wood cards, you can begin with our mini wood cards and get a taste of what Indigo Ember has to offer. Otherwise, our 4x6 wood cards are good starting point, too! Want to make a bigger impact, our large wood cards can do the trick.

We love hearing stories from our customers. Have one to share? Send us your storyand you may see it featured in one of our upcoming blog posts. See our current wood card collection here.

Introducing Indigo Ember's large wooden greeting cards. These 5" x 7" beauties will be popping more in our online store over the coming months. Today, we are offering something special for couples celebrating milestone wedding anniversaries, especially the 5th year anniversary (better known as the Wood anniversary). This Wedding Vow wood card can be personalized to feature your wedding vow or special anniversary message on the front of the card. As always, there is an option to add a personalized message to the back of this wood card, making it even more uniquely yours.

Give your love a timeless gift to remind him or her about the love, including the tears shed, you've experienced when the two of you exchanged your vows on that special Wedding day. View more information about this timeless, heirloom wood card here.

Over the past two weeks, I have enticed you with the beautiful landscapes and foods that can be found in and/or around Eugene, Oregon. In this final installment of my Oregon journey, I want to take a moment to reflect and reminisce on the experiences and time I enjoyed with my husband while vacationing in Oregon.

This vacation came at the right time. Since the Fall of 2016, I have been extremely busy with pouring the majority of my energies into transitioning Tri~Elegance® to Indigo Ember™. I must admit it was challenging, yet a delightful ride. Rebranding a company is no small feat. The longer your old brand existed, the more effort required to make the transition. In the end, it was all worth it. I’m happy to have a brand that well represents the products I create and is a part of who I am as a person. When Indigo Ember’s website was launch on June 16th, it was time for some much-needed respite. That’s what my trip to Oregon provided!

One of my favorite experiences with vacationing and exploring new places including revisiting favorites is there is always a transformative, spiritual renewal that occurs within me. Oregon is filled with so much natural beauty. Right up my alley as an admirer of nature. Taking a pause from my busy life, spending quality time with my hubby, and enjoying the natural beauty in this world is refreshing. Enjoying the gorgeous Oregon views is peaceful and cause me to go into deep thought and reflect on my life, my faith in God, and my purpose in this world. Life is short and not to be taken for granted.

In addition to admiring nature, my husband and I had good conversations related to reflecting on our time together and life in general. We are continually amazed at how fast life moves as one ages. We’ll talk about something in the past and are amazed that it was 10 years ago when the event occurred but it feels like yesterday. Yipes! These moments also deepen my love for him as well.

Besides reflecting on how much older we are getting…Okay, we are not that old but we are not that young either. *smiles* Besides reflecting about our age, we also had a pleasant time brainstorming about launching Indigo Ember’s Wholesale program this summer and coming up with new ideas for wooden greeting card designs. Can’t totally say bye-bye to business matters while on vacation, especially as a business owner. The new wood card ideas will come to fruition very soon. Be sure to return back to the website to see new offerings coming in August.

Finally, to close this Oregon series, a great benefit with vacationing is the inspiration. The time-out helps get the juices flowing and coming up with new product ideas to execute when I return back home. It’s exciting! I look forward to presenting these new products to you soon and hope they bring much delight to your loved one.

The summer has been busy with the Indigo Ember website launch and soon, Indigo Ember’s Wholesale program. I’m fully enjoying this journey and looking forward to what lies ahead. I hope you enjoyed getting a little sneak peek into my personal life and the matters that influence the Indigo Ember brand and its product offerings.

Warmly,

Patricia

P.S. One last photo to enjoy! Both blog post photos are of Oregon's vineyards.

Last week, I gave you a snippet of the beautiful treasures that exist in Oregon state. For this second blog post of the Oregon vacation series, I will entice you with fabulous foods you can discover in Eugene, Portland, and throughout Oregon state.

My husband and I are very much foodies. We enjoy trying new restaurants and revisiting our favorites. One of the main attractions that draw us to a particular travel destination is its local cuisine. My husband enjoys researching and selecting the best restaurants to try. Of course, I enjoy eating and exploring the ways creative chefs prepare their masterpieces! Something we agree on is when we reflect on our past vacations, the one topic we discussed the most is the food experiences. When one has a memorable appetizer, entree, or dessert, there is no forgetting that unbelievable experience!

On our first day in Eugene, we savored Grit restaurant's creations. It’s our favorite restaurant in the area. Mouth-watering and creative offerings live here! Their menu changes seasonally. Therefore, the items my husband and I tried may be unavailable. However, we really enjoyed their Bunuelos appetizer (crispy cheese puffs with green verde sauce) and their Grilled Romaine salad was savory and deliciously prepared.

We have ventured into Oregon’s wine countryside and sample some of their Pinot Noir wines at various wineries. A pleasant surprise was a well-arranged cheese plate executed by Abbelone Vineyard & Winery. It’s pictured in the photo collage above. I personally enjoy cheese boards but this one ranks in my top three for best cheese boards I have ever tried, thus far. The meats and accompaniments included with this board were delectable.

On our last full day in Eugene, my husband and I had a fabulous dinner at Party Downtown. Their menu is very creative and their foods have unique flavor profiles. Think Smoked Grapefruit soda beverage. That’s absolutely unique! To get your mouth watering, three out of the five photos included in the photo collage are photographs of Party Downtown's creations. Their Broccoli lemon infused soup was delicious and whets the appetite. I highly recommend their version of the Fried Chicken. It’s slow cooked to perfection, requiring 20 minutes for preparation. However, it’s so worth the wait! Hubby and I finished the meal with their Strawberry Rhubarb pie and it was heavenly.

Before we took off from Portland, Oregon on a red-eye flight, hubby and I enjoyed lunch at Jake’s Famous Crawfish restaurant. Surprisingly, I’m not a huge chocolate fan but I couldn’t pass up a very interesting dessert when it was presented to me. The paper bag looking dessert in the photo collage was taken there. It’s rightfully named The Chocolate Bag. It’s a huge dessert which will require sharing in order to finish it. It's delightful and was a fun way to end the meal. My husband and I also recommend their Banana Cream pie. That was yummy! Hubby also raved about their popcorn crawfish.

So, thoughtful friends, that concludes getting a snippet into my food adventures in Oregon. It was a tasty fun experience! The Abbelone's cheese board experience has me interested in trying fun ways to create a deliciously prepared cheese board using my favorite cheeses and more! One of Indigo Ember's cheese boards makes a prime candidate for the presentation.

Do you have a favorite Heartfelt travel story with your significant, family member(s), and/or best friend that you would like to share with us? We embrace our lives and want you to do the same. It's a wonderful time when we are sharing our life and interacting with those we love.

From the Heart

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